Weight Loss Myth #3: Eating One Meal a Day

Here is another weight loss myth. People often get the concept that in order to lose weight, they should eat one meal a day and live off water. Well, that may be an exaggeration but you get my point. But in truth, dieticians encourage people who want to lose weight to eat at least five meals in one day.

You might be wondering if you’re reading some bogus advice. However, this fact is accurate. According to experts, eating 5 meals in a day will help you lose weight because you will be feeling full the entire day, you won’t get cravings for impulsive meals like burgers, fries, potato chips, and all those other food that gets your mouth watering when you see a commercial.

These five meals must contain a health and well-balanced breakfast, lunch, and dinner and two light snacks. The food you need to aim for are high fiber (green, leafy vegetables, and fruits), moderate carbohydrates (rice, bran muffins, whole wheat toast), good sources of fat (fish oil, vegetable oil, olive oil and the like), and lean proteins (fish, chicken, pork, and steak without the fatty parts).

The main food you need to stay away from are those loaded with bad cholesterol and sodium. They can be in the forms of canned food, junk food, burgers, pizza, fries, sodas, instant noodles and the like. Typically, all fast foods are unhealthy and almost all processed food too. Remember, it doesn’t mean that if it’s not salty, it’s low in sodium. You should learn to read content labels when choosing your food.

Eating five meals in a day doesn’t mean you’re overeating. You need to balance out your five meals or get a consult from a dietician if you need advice about what to eat and how much. It’s not the number of meals you eat in a day, but how you control what you eat.

Depriving yourself of adequate food will starve and hurt your body in the long run. You may not see the effects of starvation, but as it progresses, you could die. Giving yourself adequate food through 5 divided meals daily will keep you well-nourished and cancel out sudden impulses on food cravings. Make sure to cross out this practice as a weight loss myth. 

Weight Loss Myths - Skipping on Dinner (Number 2!)

They say that you shouldn’t eat dinner because you don’t do anything when you sleep. People think that this means everything you eat during dinner will stuff you with a few pounds when you wake up the next day. This is a weight loss myth.

The principle with weight loss is to eat lesser calories than you burn during exercise. With this in mind, it then follows that it doesn’t matter when you eat, but by how much you exercise daily. If your total calorie consumption per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) is around 1, 500 calories and you burn 2, 000 calories when you work out, it still means you’re going to lose weight. Just remember not to deprive yourself of less than 1, 000 calories a day since this will be bad for your health. Consult your doctor to help you calculate ideal amounts of calories for weight loss.

Depriving yourself of dinner each night can cause weight loss but take a huge toll on your overall health. Remember, the last meal you ate before sleeping would probably be during snack time at 3pm. When you wake up at 6am, you eat breakfast before going to work or school. That’s a total of 15 hours without something to eat. Your body will starve!

As a consequence, your body will leech off your internal energy reserves from your fat or muscles. If it takes energy from your fat, ketones are released to your blood stream. These ketones are harmful if in high concentrations and could cause coma. If you’re out of fat, your body uses your muscles for energy, causing muscle wasting. This is when your previously formed biceps turn to nothing. It doesn’t matter where your body is getting its energy. Either it’s from fat or muscle, your body is literally eating itself.

Dinner is as important as any meal in the day. Dieticians even recommend to people who want to lose weight to eat at least 5 meals a day. That’s 3 meals, and 2 snacks. This is a weight loss SOP. When you really don’t feel comfortable eating dinner, then eat a light meal or anything that will fill your stomach.

Your body does a lot of things while you sleep and it needs calories to function. Breathing, pumping blood, digesting, and all things that keep you alive require calories. Don’t deprive your body of its basic needs just so you can lose weight fast. There is a better solution for weight loss and it is certainly not through missing dinner. 

Weight Loss Myths (First ONE)

Weight loss is an answer to a lot of weight problems out there. Since a lot of people talk about this topic a lot, it is unavoidable that some Weight loss myths will come afloat. Let’s discuss some myths about weight loss and the consequent truth behind them.

It is said that tremendously cutting down the calories you take in will help you lose weight faster. Well, this is true. You do lose weight if you cut down a lot on your calories. However, you’ll be barely left alive to enjoy all your lost weight. This is the first weight loss myth. 

Calories play a vital role in our bodies. Similar to how a car runs with fuel, our body works with a rich supply of energy from calories. You need energy on things you do like walking, talking, laughing, running, and a lot more. However, did you know you also need energy to do things you can’t control within your body? You need calories to breathe, pump blood, digest food, fight infection, and a lot more.

Depriving yourself of adequate calories will starve your body. This can leave you feeling weak, dizzy, light-headed, and in pain.

Tremendously cutting down calories will deprive your body of its source of energy and will result in looking for alternative sources of energy. Energy is stored in fat and muscles, so it metabolizes fat and muscles for energy, making you lose weight. Isn’t that great? Wrong. It’s not. Excessive fat and muscle metabolism releases toxins and wastes to your blood stream. These harmful chemicals are called ketones. When too much ketones are in your blood, you develop a coma. That’s when you fall out of consciousness and you can’t wake up until the problem is resolved.

Doctors say that taking in lesser than 1, 000 calories a day can be dangerous. That is why you need to take in adequate amount of calories. You don’t need to cut them all out of your daily meal. You just need to eat them in moderation. Consult your doctor for a safe amount of calories to take daily, which can keep you healthy and help lose weight.

Never starve yourself in an attempt to lose weight fast. There are a lot of ways to lose weight that doesn’t involve you risking your life. Consult a professional when looking for a weight-loss diet. Never experiment because the price could be your health. Please be aware of this fundamental first of the many weight loss myths.